The Great Sphinx, the first Egyptian royal colossal sculpture, is a huge creature with a lion’s body and a human head at Giza near Cairo. It is the national symbol of the Egypt. This monumental statue has stirred the imagination of adventurers, tourists, poets and scholars for centuries.

The word “Sphinx” is a Greek word that they gave name to an amazing creature that had a head of women. Sphinx means strangler. There are so many Sphinxes in Egypt, usually with a king’s head wearing headdress and the body of lion. There are also some other Sphinxes with ram heads which are associated with the God Amun.

Khafre was an ancient Egyptian king and it is believed that his workers shaped a stone into lion body and gave their kings face on it over 4,500 years ago. However, none can say certainly that it is indeed the face of the king Khafre. An argument is out there that the builder of Great Pyramid, Khufu, might have built the Great Sphinx.

It is believed that the Great Sphinx is the most immense sculpture in the round that ever made by men. Most of the Egyptian monuments are complex and it is so. However, It is not an isolated monument that consists great statue itself, a new kingdom temple, its old temple and some other structures. The Great Sphinx is closely related to the valley temple of Khafre.

The material in the stone of Sphinx is the limestone bedrock which originated from the loose sediment deposit at the bottom of the sea about fifty million years ago.

Whether it is the face of the king or not, the Great Sphinx reminds the memories of ancient Egypt and now the people from all around the world come here to see the Great Pyramid and the Great Sphinx.

Egypt is known as a land of mysteries and no other place has remarkable mysteries like this. Mystery surrounds its religion, its origin and its monumental architecture such as pyramids, temples and the enormous Sphinx. Pyramids are the only remaining wonder of ancient seven wonders and the most famous of all kinds of ancient monuments.

The mighty river, Nile, flows from the Africa’s heart to the Mediterranean Sea as a sign of the Pharaonic kingdom. The long flood plain was a gift from god, an ideal place for growing flax, wheat and other crops because of the nutrient rich silt that deposited by the annual flooding of the river.

The Egyptians believed that the soul and body were important to human existence in both life and death. Their unique funerary practices were designed to find their path in the afterworld. They mummified their body and buried in tombs that filled with all necessities of life such as food, domestic wares and treasures. They believed the soul returns to the body after the death so doing this would ensures happy life ever after.

The famous tombs are the pyramids where the gods appeared in the creation of the history. These were the largest ever built. These constructions were highly engineered. Paid workers moved huge limestones blocks without using wheels, iron tools and horses. They did it because they believed doing this would improve their own prospects in the afterlife. They were worried about death, but those people were their life who knew how to enjoy the life.

Not only the pyramids. Egypt has thousands of other mysterious creations that have been famous for their own characteristics, making this place the most famous mysterious place of the world. Today, Egyptian archaeologists are making important discoveries, answering many unanswered questions.

Katatni said the party might seek to ban alcohol for Egyptians but allow it for tourists on hotel beaches. Essam el-Erian, deputy FJP leader, said when asked about the issue that it would be a “fatal mistake” to damage the tourist industry.

– Hassan Malek, one of the main financiers and business strategists of the Brotherhood, said he had reservations about dealing with Qualified Industrial Zones, set up under a deal implemented in 2005 that allows Egypt to export from the zones to the United States free of tariffs and quotas provided products contain a certain percentage of Israeli inputs.

The programme talks of “spreading and deepening” the understanding of sharia as a way to guide individuals and society, echoing comments by officials who say they do not want to impose sharia on an unwilling population.

– It says followers of other religions would be governed by their own laws on religious matters.

– Asked whether the party would seek to make it a rule for Egyptian women to wear the Muslim veil, FJP Secretary-General Saad el-Katatni said: “I cannot draft a law that says an unveiled woman will be forbidden from this or that … (but) I must make her feel that her punishment is in the afterlife.” Most women in Egypt already wear a veil.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) gained most seats in the first round of Egypt’s first democratic parliamentary elections for six decades.

Following are some of the views espoused by the Brotherhood and the FJP on the economy, security, political reform, religion, culture and foreign policy, based on statements by members and the party programme:

POLITICS AND RELIGION

– FJP and Brotherhood officials say they want to build a modern, democratic state based on Islamic sharia law.

– The FJP says in its programme that legislation should be based on the principles of sharia and implemented with the agreement of a parliamentary majority.

– The programme talks of “spreading and deepening” the understanding of sharia as a way to guide individuals and society, echoing comments by officials who say they do not want to impose sharia on an unwilling population.It says followers of other religions would be governed by their own laws on religious matters.

– Asked whether the party would seek to make it a rule for Egyptian women to wear the Muslim veil, FJP Secretary-General Saad el-Katatni said: “I cannot draft a law that says an unveiled woman will be forbidden from this or that … (but) I must make her feel that her punishment is in the afterlife.” Most women in Egypt already wear a veil.

ECONOMY

– Broadly, Brotherhood leaders say the group supports a free-market economy with a strong private sector.

– Many Brotherhood members have big business interests, including in consumer goods such as furniture and clothing. They say they seek to emulate the Turkish experience in terms of economic growth with a focus on boosting manufacturing and exports, but say that does not mean they wish to follow Turkey’s political model.

– The group has said it seeks to gradually expand Islamic banking in Egypt as an alternative to commercial banking that would lure investors, but would leave both banking options available to consumers.

– Hassan Malek, one of the main financiers and business strategists of the Brotherhood, has said: “We want to attract as much foreign investment as possible… This needs a big role for the private sector.”

– Officials have tended to sidestep questions about whether the party would, for example, seek to ban alcohol, a move that would deter tourists, a major source of revenues and jobs.

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC. Alexander’s chief architect for the project was Dinocrates. Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt’s largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt’s imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria). It is an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
From the late 19th century, Alexandria became a major centre of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centres in the world, both because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton. Alexandria was not only a centre of Hellenism, but was also home to the largest Jewish community in the world.
In 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians. Although the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general Amr ibn al-As captured it during the Muslim conquest of Egypt, after a siege that lasted 14 months.
Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798. French troops stormed the town on 2 July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of a British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801, following which they besieged the town, which fell to them on 2 September 1801. Mohammed Ali, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, began rebuilding and redevelopment around 1810, and by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory. In July 1882, the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied. In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. On October 26, 1954, Alexandria’s Mansheyya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser.

To many people born and bred outside of Egypt, the term winter can trigger many mental images or memories that had been tucked away and long accustomed to. Those memories may be layered like a white caked-layer of snow or wet and heavy like floods of cats and dogs. Although most of us may not realize it, this sort of weather can give off a depressing, dark vibe. However, if you throw the same word, winter, into the hands of an Egyptian who has never been anywhere else to compare, the term stirs up completely different mental photographs and emotions.

Many Brotherhood members have big business interests, including in consumer goods such as furniture and clothing.

– They say they seek to emulate the Turkish experience in terms of economic growth with a focus on boosting manufacturing and exports, but say that does not mean they wish to follow Turkey’s political model.

– The group has said it seeks to gradually expand Islamic banking in Egypt as an alternative to commercial banking that would lure investors, but would leave both banking options available to consumers.

– Hassan Malek, one of the main financiers and business strategists of the Brotherhood, has said: “We want to attract as much foreign investment as possible… This needs a big role for the private sector.”

Islamic parties and the ruling military council are the biggest winners of the first stage of legislative elections as the results start to come in, Gamal Essam El-Din reports THE VICTORY sign against the setting sun and the flag in Tahrir Square marks the triumph of the revolution, if not quite in establishing a new political order then inU.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta has urged Israel to try and end its increasing regional “isolation” by repairing diplomatic ties with Egypt and Turkey and renewing peace efforts with the Palestinians.

The land that gave birth to the first great civilization is the Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world. The pyramids, the minarets, the Nile – the scope of Egypt is magnificent. The Pyramids represent one of the greatest architectural feats by man.Egypt has the oldest recorded history in Western civilization, dating back 5,000 years, king named pharaohs began to build the great pyramids as royal tombs. Egypt played an integral role in the Muslim world after the Arab conquest by ‘Amr ibn-al-‘As in 639–42. after him the Fatimid (909–1171), who founded Cairo as their capital in 969.